If the firing pins are so long that they are hooking the extractor when opening the empty gun (falling forward when the gun is held muzzle down),,I'd guess the firing pins are way too long to start with.
I really don't recall if the Meriden hammer guns are spring loaded or not but as stated, it's usually not much of a problem to install a light weight spring in there in most guns if you want to.
But I'd check the ones in place first and see how far they extend beyond the face of the breech. .050" is plenty.
At that amt the extractor shouldn't snag them upon opening.
Plus the notch commonly cut into the lower face of the extractor edge (pic posted by JDW) will gently push them back into the face upon closing of the gun.
A nice circular rounded face to the pins,,no sharp points or edges,,that only helps to snag the extractor upon closing motion instead of caming them back into the frame out of the way.
Meridens are decent guns. I've had more than a few and still have one of their hammerless singleshot shotguns and one of the pump guns.
